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ORCHID_PETALS

Consider Dhalgren.
                                           DHALGREN
Step through the
strange events.

Begin cataloging the
fantastic elements.


The main character enters the
apocalyptic city.  Some strange
things happen. He's disoriented.
He meets someone who says that
he's an engineer.  Aha, this is
the Campbellian competent man who
is going to provide an explanation
for the strange events, yes? But
no, this engineer is much like a
*real* engineer. His last job was        In general, this is the way the
something mundane involving              novel goes... Delany repeatedly
setting up a peanut butter               teases the typical SF reader,
factory. It turns out that he's          providing hints that there's about
gay, and wants to have sex with          to be an explanation, a simple,
the main character.                      logical, comprehensive framework
                                         that all of the oddities of
                                         Bellona will fit into, and then it
                                         just doesn't happen.


For example, the bizarre
astronomical effects...

You can imagine explanations (massive
holograms, much like the Sensory
Shield from "Triton").  Nothing like
this is explicitly stated, though
there are the small portable hologram
projectors that people carry around...

Or let's say the Red Eye
phenomena. Near the end
of the book, the Kid
stumbles across a room
with bins full of things                         red sun
like "red eye caps". But                         red eye
are you really supposed
to believe that every                            mirrors
time someone's eyes have
turned this odd color,                           the inside and
it's because they                                the outside...
surreptitiously slipped
these eye caps in? A                                 my god.
practical joke everyone
plays on new comers?  Why                              An "explanation":
doesn't someone see how                                you see the red sun
freaked out he is by                                   when you wear the
this, and say something                                red eye caps.
like "Hey, don't worry                                     
it's just these funny eye                                  (My opinion: 
caps I've got on."                                          no explanations 
                                                            will hold 
There are others questions...                               under examination.)

The main character's amnesia:
In a typical SF adventure 
tale, the amnesiac breaks 
through the barrier of memory, 
and learns that they are 
greater than they seem. 

    "Maker of Universes"     MAKER
    by Philip Jose Farmer

    "Worlds of Null-A"       THE_SECRET_MASTERS_OF_DESTINY
     by A.E. van Vogt  



What *happened* to
the city of
Bellona, how did it                Many a Van Vogtian hang-up
get into this                      is on display, but all are
condition?                         left hanging...


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